quadfather wrote:
Looks like its the zwei for starters then. And then see how lucky I am with the bks

Yeah, that is probably best. Thing is, even if you do manage to get Black Knight weapons or whatever early on, you're almost certainly going to be lacking the stats to actually use them. You need 24 Strength just to be able to wield BK Greataxe 2-handed.

I have to say Quaddy I am impressed to see you are still in here, helping people and banging the drum.

It's making me want to get back into it again and start a fresh all over again

Also as a side note, I might be getting a PS3 imminently so of course I will be acquiring a copy of Demons Souls. So when that happens I will be gratefully receiving your advice as I haven't played that one before

We're moving into the age of the 'Action MMO' it seems...well they say that when in reality it is still ye olde hotkey combat just with the additional ability to dodge out of AoEs (Guild Wars 2, Terra, DCUO and even Champions online to a certain extent).

Why has nobody gone "we're actually getting rid of the hotkey aspect entirely, We suggest buying a gamepad, you get a few different attacks, a normal, a strong, a rolling, a running and a jumping attack, now go forth and kick ass!"

Make Weapons less about being tied to boosting stats and more about options. So this guy with ridiculous skill just solo'd a hard dungeon boss at level 1 using only starter gear. Well congrats that player, his reward isn't some super awesome sword that can kill people in one hit, its a weapon which opens up an option to him.

Hell copy the boss armour system from Dark Souls too..beat a boss and wear their outfit (come on you know you wish there was more to the Gargoyle set than just the helm, shield and halberd, a bronze chestpiece with wings ala Dragon form torso would have been kind of cool, a Tarus Demon and Capra Demon headpiece etc.). This changes armour from a 'you need this armour to beat the next dungeon' to 'look how awesome I am, I've beaten this boss...and it is actually no better statswise than that quest armour you got which you've been slowly upgrading".

Give a character and weapons weight instead of the standard floaty MMO combat. When someone is fatrolling in havels the animation isn't so much a roll as almost a bellyflop that wearing something that heavy would require to even remotely get close to rolling in.

The Strength weapons all have the heft to them, when they hit the ground they kick up a cloud of dust, the sheer force being put into swinging them by your character shows these things are really fucking heavy.

Though I doubt such a thing would probably appeal to your standard MMO player.

Strength character up and running. Level 17, have got the zwei and used souls to get 24 str and 10 dex. Couple of points in end too. After the adjustment in combat to deal with the speed, have done taurus and sitting pretty with estus +1 at the parish blacksmith after 30 minutes!

With western RPG, what your character and skill is like is less important; it is more about loot acquisition and pushing on to get higher and higher numbers. Progression is seen as getting more numbers, almost high score chasing, up to a point where your avatar starts to get to invincible deity levels. The traditional western fantasy story - farm boy grows up to have world saving magical powers of myth.

Souls has the fantasy trappings, but the progression is more tied to your actual journey through the game, not an exponential increase in power. As such, the supporting cast of weapons, skills and numbers go towards shaping an individual playing style, a character who can deal with the environment.

This presents a challenge at every stage, trusty armour becomes that very thing, something that stays with you and not discarded at each visit at a vendor (hell, I did most of the first half of Dark Souls in my black leather garb). Much different to something like Fallout 3, where the start you endure and the end you obliterate.

What this means, however, is the game does not obviously reward you for your time. You're not getting a Bahamut summon or a new multi-enemy limit to tackle your foes with. All you get is access to the next step of your journey. As such, you are not the aforementioned typical fantasy hero, and most games are designed with that at its core.

Capcom are probably the only other bunch who seem to want to do this sort of thing. Monster Hunter, Dragons Dogma, Deep Down.